Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x07 - "Light and Shadows"

OK that was a cracking good episode. I'm not sure what to talk about because they crammed so much into 40 minutes that it's an overload ...

I will say this. I suspect the probe downloaded or hacked Airiam and "gave" her something so food for thought for the near future. I think shit's going to go down in the next few episodes.

Could Georgiou become the red angel? I just had this weird thought of her as she had knowledge of the future and all that. Alernatively Airiam?

Again we saw the funky interior where the elevators go. Yeah that's super funky. But I like that even if it was done as a gimmick.

Anyway 7/10 for me.

 

7 - I liked it but it was over too soon and time needs to be factored into the rating. It sets a lot up which is good but it also kind of a tease. If I was binging there would be no way I would not watch the next episode.

Is Ariam the red angel somehow created by the future download? Does ship/probe AI always evolve over long periods of time?

 

I think the probe had dipped into the future and gotten an upgrade, then returned all nasty.

 

It's the same coordinates (sorta, minus the decimal points) given for Talos IV from The Cage.

https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Talos_IV

So the writers kept them, even though they are whacky, probably because they knew they'd get more flack if they didn't use them.

A cool little detail is that apparently the numbers also appear in the credits under the Captain's chair. Which kinda makes sense since Captain Pike's fate is inextricably linked to Talos IV.

 

I would like the computer on the shuttle to have said - Talos IV is a restricted destination! Maybe after the events of discovery we get an explanation as to the "punishable by death". That always seemed harsh. As easy as it was to initiate flight to - it sounds like the assumption that the restriction was put in place after the events of "The Cage" may be incorrect and we will get a broader explanation as to why Starfleet went to such extreme measures to avoid contact. If you look at "The Cage" at face value the Talosians didn't seem to be a future threat warranting no contact.

 

With the episode this week of the probe coming from the distant future it got me thinking (sorry if this has been posted before).

What if in future episode a shuttle / etc. gets trapped on the other side of the time vortex and/or asked to help defeat the future enemy.

The only way they theorize to get them back is to have Discovery on the other side with them / but they can't reach them through the vortex.

So ….. hide discovery (parked) for 1000 years so that the crew can retrieve her, help destroy the enemy and then return through the vortex.

I'm excited as it would mean season 3 discovery would have the new ship AI.

 

So spock has some dyslexia issues. well alex kurtzman was one of the writers of star trek 2009 and in the deleted or extended scene of that movie sarek said spock suffered from ostracism. second time alex has given spock some ''handicapped society disadvantage''.

Also to those are fired up about amanda and why she sticks with sarek. watch this clip below

star trek 2009 touched on it. amanda threatened to leave sarek if he continues to disgust her.
Alex is just retelling more of his kelvin movies universe stories in discovery when it concerns spock's family.

 

Yeah, I suspect Discovery writers want to explain the death penalty for going to Talos IV. The events of the Cage don’t justify a death penalty.

 

The probe was reprogrammed 500 years in the future (28th century). Zora is an abandoned, wandering AI 1000 years in the future (33rd century). So the timeline doesn't really mesh at this point.

Which isn't necessarily a problem when we're dealing with a time-travelling entity. But, I feel if they wanted to hint at Zora being the Red Angel (or controlling the Red Angel, i.e. Airiam), then they would've put the probe's reprogramming further in the future. 33rd century or beyond.

 

I gave it a 9. Partly because I loved Georgiou in it, and because it made me more excited about what was coming in later episodes than any other so far. Not just Talos, but Airiam's "assimilation" thing and suggestion that Leland was somehow responsible for Michael's parents.

I'm not so certain. They included mention of the Defiant being in the MU from the Enterprise MU episode, so I wouldn't be surprised at this being part of TCW in some way. I was certainly getting those vibes.

That was my immediate thought as well.

Yeah, possibly too young, but that's what I thought when I saw it. The other one reminds me of Lorca, actually.

 

Good episode, only gave it a 7 though because it's an arc/mythology episode and doesn't hold up as a stand alone.

Always love the Sarek household stuff, and now we're getting it in the present day too. I'm pretty sure there was a line that negated the existence of Sybok too, which sucks. Our first look at nunuSpock is him severely disassociated so it's too early to play the comparison game.

Georgiou's line about knowing more about Michael than she'd ever understand makes me wonder if she's the Red Angel, or if she was referring to her own adopted daughter, Mirror Michael.

Was the probe that attacked the shuttle the work of future Borg? And Ariam's finally going to matter to the story!

Was surprised to see the fleet of S31 ships.

 

I would actually love the inclusion (and conclusion) of the Temporal Cold War. First of all, it just sort of petered out over the course of ENT, which was disappointing. Second of all, I like fanwank connecting my different favourite Trek shows. Gimme!

 

I thought the ENT season 4 “Storm Front” episodes ended TCW when space Nazi was killed.

 

I believe Georgiou saying she knows more about Michael has to do with the fact she knows why/how her parents really died.

 

But come on, we never found out anything of substance. Also, fuck the Space Nazis. I pretend those ridiculous episodes don't exist. Ergo, I didn't get a satisfactory ending.

 

Just watched "Light and Shadows" and I am still processing everything. Overall I enjoyed it. Season 2 is a marked improvement over season 1. Every episode in season 2 seems to have a self contained storyline that is tied to the overarching story via B and C plots. This time the crew faces a temporal anomaly, while Burnham goes off to visit her parents on Vulcan. I enjoyed both plots, but the episode started out better than it concluded.

The A plot involving the temporal anomaly felt like pure Trek. To research the anomaly a probe has to be send and for some plot reason this probe has to be delivered via shuttle. Tyler and Pike team up to fly the shuttle and are of course sucked into the anomaly. What i loved was the scene afterwards where Saru informs the bridge crew that their objective has changed from research to rescue and proceeds to hand out orders. Writer Ted Sullivan knows how to write good lines for Doug Jones. He also wrote S1's "What's Past Is Prologue" in which Saru gave a commanding speech to the crew in a character defining moment. Here Saru excudes some fine leadership qualities as he calmly lays out his plan and delegates various responsibilites. He comes across as not only a leader, but also a tutor who is guiding the bridge crew in this latest crisis. I loved that the writers did not forget that Stamets has special temporal abilities. It was a nice instance of story continuity that has sometimes been lacking in this show but also prior Trek shows like Voyager and Enterprise. Why the writers felt the need to add a ticking clock in the form of radiation poisoning is beyond me. As time was constantly in flux in the anomaly anyways, tracking fatal exposure must have been impossible. If the radiation wasn't enough, Pike and Tyler also had to deal with a squid like futureprobe. It was all a bit much. Too much fabricated peril (losing two crewmen in an anomaly is terrible enough, I would think) and very little character moments. The resolution to all of these problems felt rushed. This was the shortest episode of the season clocking in at barely 40 minutes. This could've used 10 minutes more.

The B plot involving Michael's return to Vulcan to find Spock hidden there was interesting. I adored the brief glimpses of Vulcan we got here. The production design and visual effects were top notch, as usual. The Burnham/Amanda/Sarek scenes were... fascinating. But like the A plot, the story quickly falls apart when the writers try to shoehorn Section 31 into the mix. The brief excursion to a Leland's ship starts okay enough, Leland seems sincere when he offers to help Spock with his mental problems. But of course, there's a twist. After all, there must be a twist. Gourgiou tells Burnham that Leland doesn't care about Spock and will destroy his mind if ordered so. She helps Burnham to escape which involves a staged but nonetheless kick ass fight scene between Michael and Phillipa. Ted Sullivan seems to understand that if you have Michelle Yeoh as a cast member, you should at least have her kick some ass once in a while. I salute him. The plot ends which Burnham escaping with Spock and fleeing from Section 31 ships.

I like elements from both plots but it didn't come together as a whole. The writers seemed to be putting multiple things into motion and we'll just have to wait and see how these things pay off. I do wish that they had fleshed out one of these plots more, either the temporal anomaly plot or the Spock storyline. I also wonder what the timeline was for these events. Did Burnham go to Vulcan, speak to her parents, find Spock and bring him to Section 31 in under 5 hours? How small has the universe become?

Some random thoughts:
- The opening titles featured some changes. We got a better view of the Red Angel. And there were some new names among the producers like James Duff and Michelle Paradise. I am curious if these additions and the departure of Berg and Harberts will bring about a change to the storytelling. Season 2 has been an improvement, but there is still a lot that could benefit from some rethinking.

- Airiam has been infected by a virus. I was hoping we would to get to know this character better this season. Instead, she's been turned into a plot device.

- Jeff Russo's music has inproved greatly compared to season 1. Loving it.

- Where was Detmer?

-"Everything sounds better if you put time in front of it."- Tilly. And then that reaction shot of Saru!

 

I wish this series would ditch the ugly haircut for Vulcan females. The makeup also looks odd on the actor playing little Spock. They also seem to be trying to make the Vulcan ears look more like elf ears than in the original series.

I did think the Vulcan scenes were too rushed, but what was there was solid. The scenes between Amanda and Sarek and Michael were good. The house resembles the one in the Animated Series. I’m curious about where Amanda had Spock hidden away. Do the grounds have a family temple/pon farr site and cave complex?

I do like that this version of Spock is clearly a hybrid, a man who inherited a learning disability and emotional openness from his human mother and has struggled with both. On an aesthetic note, he also looks better with longer hair.

 

I saw shades of "Endgame" there with Voyager's bat-armor.

It's about time! She's way too much of a cool sci-fi character to let her just stay in the background.